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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29774448">What's Wrong With Being Confident?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A little salt for flavor, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Deal with a Devil, I hope this story ends up making sense, Jealousy, Multi, My First Work in This Fandom, Power of Friendship, Sort Of, probably an akumatization or two, romance will show up eventually</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 01:28:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,480</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29774448</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Chloe just has to be nice enough for Adrien to start talking to her again. Nothing else matters, except maybe getting Ladybug's trust back. All she needed was to get one person on board, and she could do it. If Dupain-Cheng could be nice, then how hard could it be?<br/>She'd be an angel in a week, tops.<br/>Maybe two. Or three.<br/>Just what did she get them into, and when did she start caring so much?!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chloé Bourgeois &amp; Marc Anciel, Chloé Bourgeois &amp; Sabrina Raincomprix, Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Anonymous</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What's Wrong With Being Confident?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chloe looked over the boy before her with a critical eye, hands on her hips. She withheld a scowl as he fidgeted in place, glancing at the door.</p><p>"Alright" she snapped him to attention. "Spin."</p><p>"Wha-"</p><p>"Chop chop! I don't have all day for this ridiculousness." She snapped.</p><p>The boy, now confused as well as frightened, clutched his journal to his chest and pivoted on his toes, moving quickly enough to stumble. Chloe caught him by the shoulders and stood him up straighter than before, taking the opportunity to tug at the fabric there. It was sturdy, but clearly cheap. They would have to correct that.</p><p>"Um…"</p><p>She snapped her gaze up to his averted eyes.</p><p>"N-not that… I don't enjoy your company Chloe… but was there something you wanted? You seem... off." Aha. There it was. </p><p>A smirk crept up onto her face and the boy in front of her tensed at the sight of it. "Yep." He finally looked her in the eye, fear dampened in place of curiosity. "And, unless you want people finding out about how head-over-heels you are for a certain artist, you'll help me out." Ah, <em> that's </em> where the fear went.</p><p>"What? Um, how do- I don't have a crush! A-and threatening people is just-"</p><p>"Efficient. And you definitely do. It's obvious if you know what to look for. So," She barreled over his protests, "<em> I </em> am going to make you a deal, and if you're smart you'll accept. Got it?" She waited for him to nod, which he did after a second, looking a bit lost.</p><p>"You have something in spades that I have none of. Any guesses on what that is?" She pretended to examine her nails, keeping one eye on the other's reaction. </p><p>"I-if you're looking for someone to write an essay for you, then- um- sorry but I don't do that. That's plagiarism and well-"</p><p>At least he was stringing sentences together better. "Not that. You," She jabbed one manicured nail into his chest, "are <em> nice </em> . It is <em> sickening </em> and I hate it and if I don't figure it out, Adrikins will never talk to me again. And what <em> I </em> am is <em> confident </em>, which, if you ever want to take things farther with your crush, is something that you desperately need. So Marc," she stuck one hand out and let the victory bleed into her smile, "let's help each other out."</p>
<hr/><p>The day had started out pretty normally for Marc. He'd gone to school, taken a quiz, eaten lunch with Nathaniel and Alix, and had just been waiting for the last bell to ring when the roar of an Akuma could be heard from a nearby classroom. Now he wasn't one to judge, but there were… a lot of kids from the neighboring class that got akumatized. It was very strange, to say the least. But then his day got weird when he went to the art classroom. </p><p>Usually when school would let out early due to an Akuma on the premises, he could count on at least a few of the other art club members showing up in the room to wait out the storm. But when he opened the door, no one was there, not even the teacher. The room felt… wrong, somehow, without Alix zipping through to grab "Just this one paint!" or Rose bobbing her head to whatever beat she was composing that day. And that wasn't even getting <em> started </em> on Nathaniel. </p><p>While it was unlikely that the others would show up soon, Marc was loathe to give up a quiet workspace for no reason, so he took a seat at his regular spot, got out his journal, and brought up the Ladyblog on his phone to get a gauge on what kind of Akuma had appeared this time. It was actually a more complex one, and he quickly fell into a trance of analysis and brainstorming, tuning out the world around him.</p><p>So when the door slammed against the wall, he nearly leapt out of his seat.</p><p>Turning his wide gaze onto the doorway, he found Chloe Bourgeois standing there, collage board under one arm and annoyance written all over her face. </p><p>Then, somehow he found himself standing in front of her, reeling from the sudden onslaught of words from the smug girl. </p><p>“I…” He swallowed, trying to sort through everything that had been thrown at him. <em> The </em> Chloe Bourgeois, queen of the school and proud, spoiled princess of Paris, was asking <em> him </em> for help? Because that’s what it boiled down to, behind the threats and the posturing. She was reaching out, and somehow it didn’t surprise him at all that she was abrasive, even in that. </p><p>But of all things, it was to try to be nicer? It wasn’t like he didn’t think she could stand to be a little nicer, lord knows there would be so many fewer Akumas if that was the case, but why now? Why him? She mentioned a friend, and good for him for no longer tolerating her behavior, although he was actually surprised that Adrien stood up for himself, so that answered part of it, but there were so many people in her class that were genuinely nice people. She could ask one of them, couldn’t she? But...</p><p><em> “Chloe’s done it again!” Alix exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “Ugh. She can’t just not be a bitch for two seconds so that we don’t have another Akuma to deal with? It’s not like we’re here to try and </em> learn <em> or anything!”  </em></p><p>
  <em> Nathaniel sighed, looking up from his sketchbook. “Not like you were paying much attention anyways, although it would be nice to actually get a panel done before someone smashes through the window looking for her.” Marc chuckled a bit next to him, knowing that Nath was too efficient to not have gotten at least three pages done before being interrupted.  </em>
</p><p><em> “Aw come on guys! She’s not… </em> trying <em> to create Akumas. Things just tend to escalate! Really often!” Rose tried to encourage, but even Marc could see the strain on her smile. Juleka just sighed, patting Rose’s shoulder. </em></p><p>… But she really couldn’t. They had all known her for so long, was there anyone in her class who would help her? Would any of them do so kindly?</p><p>He cleared his throat, getting his thoughts in order. “If I were to agree, how would this work exactly? What exactly do you want out of this exchange?”</p><p>She faltered, blinking for a second before straightening again. “I’m sure that we can figure something out as we go along. For now it could be like, tutoring, but better, and for personalities instead of school. Of course we can’t meet up <em> in </em>school, that’s just asking for rumors to start, and I refuse to be part of any of the ridiculousness that those imbeciles conjure up, but a few meetings after school ought to do the trick. Then we can both be on our merry way and never mention this again.” She was inspecting her nails as if she couldn’t care less what he had to say, but he could see the tightness at the corner of her eye, the slight frown on her lips as she examined her pristine fingers. </p><p>It was reassuring in a way that she wanted this to work out so badly, and that with the lack of a plan, she had likely come up with the idea on the spur of the moment. Sure her mention of ‘a few meetings’ was a bit worrying and made him want to laugh hysterically, but with a lot more time he probably could get her there. He could get her there. Oh <em> fuck </em>, he was going to get her there. </p><p>“O-okay Chloe. I’ll help you.” He reached a hand out to her, just as she had done earlier. </p><p>Her face lit up with a smirk, although this one seemed a touch more sincere than the one earlier. “I don’t <em> do </em> charity, giving it or receiving. But you have a deal.” She grabbed his hand, careful of her nails, and shook their hands once up and down, fast and decisive.  </p><p>“Alright, you better have your stuff, because we’re heading out.” Switching her grip to his bicep, Chloe started dragging him towards the door. </p><p>“What?” He yelped as he scrambled to keep up. “R-right now?” Not that he had plans, but still. He was pretty sure it was the principle of the thing to object when you got dragged around all of a sudden. </p><p>“No time like the present! The sooner this gets over with, the better! Chop chop.” Chloe didn’t even look back, just marching forward through the empty halls. </p><p>And as Marc was led down the steps, and shuffled into a car with a surprised Sabrina, he couldn’t help but wonder what the hell he’d just gotten himself into. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For the purpose of this fic, I am pretending that Reverser happened a bit before Despair Bear, long enough for Marc to get established in the Art friend group and get a ways into working with Nathaniel, so that Chloe is at least vaguely familiar with him enough to be somewhat sure this would work. Hope the change doesn't bother anyone too much!</p><p>Please let me know what you thought, this is my first work in the Miraculous fandom, and this idea has been buzzing in my head for a while!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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